By MADDY VITALE
The results of the state’s Best Practices Inventory Survey are in and Sea Isle City did well.
The annual survey, established during former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration in 2010, is designed to give the state an idea about how municipalities handle business from ordinances to capital projects to overall transparency of government.
Sea Isle Chief Financial Officer Paula Doll presented the survey findings to City Council on Tuesday.
She noted that Sea Isle qualified for $209,000 in state aid as a result of how well the city did on the survey questions.
“As required, I will go over the annual Best Practice survey,” Doll said. “This year there was a total of 48 questions, with 27 of them scored and 21 unscored.”
Sea Isle scored a total of 21.5 points out of 23 points available, she said.
Questions in the 2021 survey involved personnel, transparency, capital projects, budgets, shared services, tax collection, planning and economic development, among others.
The entire list of questions for the 2021 survey can be viewed at https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dlgs/programs/best_practices.html#1
The 48 questions are broken into three categories. Nineteen questions are in “Core Competencies,” eight are in “Best Practices,” and 21 are “Unscored” survey questions, according to the state website.
When asked by one of the City Council members what was the reason the city did not score the full 23 points, Doll said, “One of the items I would like to bring up to you is they are surveying for electric charging stations,” Doll said. “That is something we can look forward to.”
The inventory’s scoring threshold is based on the number of core competencies questions. Each municipality must receive a minimum score of 15 to receive the full final aid payment, according to the state website.
While Sea Isle’s inventory has been completed and scored already, municipalities have until Wednesday, Nov. 3, to submit the Best Practices Inventory survey.
